The Zero Circle
Seven seats. One mandate: to guide the world from neglect to zero. The Zero Circle advises the annual program of 0NTD and serves as the selection committee for the mission’s highest honors — the Zero Medal and the Zero Seal.
Advise
Guides the annual roadmap, priorities and standards of the mission.
Confer honors
Serves as the committee that awards the Zero Medal each year.
Safeguard the Seal
Verifies and enshrines the Zero Seal when a disease is eradicated.
The Seven Seats
Two honorary industry seats, three merit seats drawn from the Wall of Honor, and two seats held open for leaders yet to earn their place.
Office of the CEO, Merck & Co.
Held for the Chief Executive (Robert M. Davis)
Merck & Co., Inc. (MSD outside the U.S. and Canada)
Reserved in recognition of the Mectizan Donation Program — the first and longest-running drug-donation program of its kind, providing ivermectin free of charge since 1987 to fight river blindness and lymphatic filariasis. The model that made NTD elimination imaginable.
Mectizan Donation ProgramOffice of the CEO, GSK
Held for the Chief Executive (Emma Walmsley)
GSK plc
Reserved in recognition of the largest drug-donation program by volume — billions of albendazole tablets pledged toward the elimination of lymphatic filariasis, alongside decades of investment in NTD research and access.
Uniting to Combat NTDs
President Jimmy Carter
Founder, The Carter Center
The Carter Center
Drove Guinea worm disease to the brink of eradication — from an estimated 3.5 million cases to roughly ten today — through decades of "peace-for-health" diplomacy that opened conflict zones to treatment.
The Carter Center
Dr. Mwelecele Ntuli Malecela
Director, WHO Dept. of Control of NTDs (2018–2022)
World Health Organization
Architect of the WHO 2021–2030 NTD road map — the global blueprint for the fight. A Tanzanian scientist and lifelong champion for women and girls in science.
World Health Organization
Prof. David Molyneux CMG
Emeritus Professor, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
A primary architect of the movement that elevated NTDs onto the world agenda. Championed the integrated "rapid-impact package" of mass drug administration and co-founded the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis.
Liverpool School of Tropical MedicineTo be assigned
Nomination open
Zero Circle
An open seat, held for a future leader whose contribution earns a place at the table as the mission advances toward zero.
To be assigned
Nomination open
Zero Circle
An open seat, held for a future leader whose contribution earns a place at the table as the mission advances toward zero.
The inaugural Zero Circle is being convened. The honorary industry seats are reserved for the office of each named chief executive in recognition of their organization’s landmark drug-donation programs; the merit seats reflect proposed designations drawn from the Force for Zero Wall of Honor. Names shown do not imply that an individual or organization has formally accepted a seat.
Keystone sponsors are granted a confirmed honorary seat in the Zero Circle — a permanent place among those steering the world toward zero.
Explore sponsorshipThe Honors of the Circle
Two distinctions the Zero Circle confers — one to celebrate the year’s greatest contribution, one to enshrine history itself.
The Zero Medal
Each year the Zero Circle confers the Zero Medal on one person or organization whose contribution moved the world measurably closer to zero — a scientific breakthrough, a bold donation, a country reaching elimination. A celebration of momentum, renewed every year.
The Zero Seal
The rarest honor in the mission. The Zero Seal is conferred once, and only once, for a given disease — when it is verified to be eradicated from the face of the earth. It cannot be bought, lobbied for, or awarded early. It is earned by history, and enshrined forever.
Reserved for verified eradication